2017-03-31

Video above published by Bloomberg on Mar 24, 2017: A Silicon Valley startup called Ripcord has unveiled a machine that takes stacks of paper, pulls out the staples, rapidly scans the paper and send the scans to the cloud. That seemingly inane task of digitization is done at breakneck speed.

2017-03-30

March 28, 2017: Amazon.com Inc., has agreed to buy Dubai-based online retailer Souq.com, betting that e-commerce in the Middle East is poised to take off. Bloomberg's Selina Wang reports on "Bloomberg Technology."

See also: The Retail Death Spiral Continues | SeekingAlpha.com: "Today, I do almost all of my shopping at Amazon (AMZN). It saves me immense amounts of time, while expanding my choices exponentially. And I don't have to fight traffic, engage in the parking space wars, or wait in line to pay."

1. Providing certainty and clarity
2. Taking control of our own laws
3. Strengthening the Union
4. Protecting our strong and historic ties with Ireland and maintaining the Common Travel Area
5. Controlling immigration: We will have control over the number of EU nationals coming to the UK.
6. Securing rights for EU nationals in the UK, and UK nationals in the EU
7. Protecting workers’ rights
8. Ensuring free trade with European markets
9. Securing new trade agreements with other countries
10. Ensuring the UK remains the best place for science and innovation
11. Cooperating in the fight against crime and terrorism
12. Delivering a smooth, orderly exit from the EU

Information about leaving the EU | planforbritain.gov.uk: "We have ruled out being a member of the single market, as the PM said in the Lancaster House speech. EU leaders have made clear their view that members of the single market must sign up to the ‘four freedoms’ that underpin it — including the free movement of people – and be subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice ... Instead, we want a bold and ambitious Free Trade Agreement with the EU. This will enable free-flowing trade in both goods and services, and ensure the freedom for UK companies to trade with and operate within European markets. We also intend to leave the Common Commercial Policy and for the UK not to be bound by the EU’s Common External Tariff so that we can pursue our own independent trade policy, securing trade deals with new partners. The Prime Minister created the Department for International Trade for this purpose."

"Will there be a second referendum or an alternative to leaving the EU? No. The country voted to leave the EU and it is the duty of the Government and Parliament to make sure we do just that."

A fairer society | PlanforBritain.gov.uk: "We will build a fairer society where success is based on merit, not privilege. We have started to rebalance our society in favour of ordinary working people, but now need to do more to turn Britain into a union where success is defined by work and talent, not birth or circumstance. The Government’s Plan for Britain seeks to

provide access to a good school place for every child – one that gives them the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the future

ensure there is control of immigration so that it serves the national interest and is fair to everyone who lives and works in this country

deliver one million new homes, so that more people have the chance to own or rent an affordable home of their own

continue to invest in the NHS to help people at every stage of their life and support a vital national institution

help people who can work get back into work so that our welfare system is fair to those who need it and fair to those who pay for it

tackle historic injustices, like racial and gender discrimination, that hold too many people back.

--original post--Brexit: ahead of UK Prime Minister Theresa May triggering Article 50 by delivery of a letter to the EU's European Council President Donald Tusk, on March 29, 2017, which will start negotiations between UK and the EU, both benchmark indexes of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, closed up on Tuesday, March 28:

UK Should Prepare To Walk Away--“Paying Any Exit Fee is absurd”--"... The primary problem in these negotiations is the EU nannycrat fools believe they can force the UK to pay ridiculous exit charges on top of other demands. The ideal approach for the UK is to simply walk away. What can the EU possibly do that does not hurt the EU even more than it does the UK? The sooner Theresa May sets the appropriate tone for negotiations the better off everyone will be. I wrote about this long ago in Brexit Stacked Deck? Which Way? Don’t Negotiate, Just Leave! Serious negotiations can only begin once Theresa May sets the proper tone. The proper tone is the UK is prepared to walk away and pay the EU nothing."--MishTalk.com

EU Needs To Fill Gap In Budget Once Brexit Becomes Official:

Mar 27, 2017: UK says it will not pay a 60 billion euro bill to leave the EU.

Why 2017 Could See the Collapse of the Euro | Fortune.com: ".... it may be only a matter of time before Europe looks back on the euro as an interesting, well-intentioned experiment that failed—at great cost to the citizens of Europe and their democracies."--Joseph E. Stiglitz, Professor at Columbia University, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, 2001, and most recently, author of The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe, W.W. Norton, 2016."

Three Ways the Euro Could Break Up—and Three Ways it Could Be Saved | Bloomberg.com: March 7, 2017 ... Break Up Scenario No. 3: Greece Can't Take It Any More--What the experts say the chances are: 50%--"This implosion of the euro zone is getting closer. The most vulnerable are Italy, France, Portugal and Greece. I expect one to be gone in 18 months’ time. There will be no warning or negotiations."—Jim Mellon, chairman of the Burnbrae Group

Winner or Loser? Nike, for its $1 billion deal with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Winner: Salespeople. With influencers losing trust, brands are now recruiting "expert" salespeople to rep their products.

Winner: Students turning to GoFundMe to cover the cost of their college educations.

Domains referenced:
ESPN.com
Nike.com
Experticity.com
GoFundMe.com

Sources:
(0:06) L2 Analysis of Business Insider Data. http://read.bi/2ldrPbO
(0:10) “NFL Signs TV Rights Deals with Fox, NBC, and CBS,” Los Angeles Times, December 2011. http://lat.ms/1mZMeM2
(0:10) “Sports Finance,” Gil Fried, Timothy D. DeSchriver, Michael Mondello. http://amzn.to/2mYomL3
(0:15) "ESPN Is Going to Lay Off a Lot of Familiar Faces," New York Post, March 2017. http://nyp.st/2mbgfLj
(0:15) "Source: Looming ESPN Layoffs Have Sparked ‘Panic of Biblical Proportions’ Among Talent," Sporting News, March 2017. http://bit.ly/2nrW7HI
(0:21) “Mobile ESPN to Launch Nationwide in Best Buy Stores,” ESPN, October 2005. http://es.pn/2o98oh6
(0:36) “Cristiano Ronaldo Generated $500 Million In Value For Nike In 2016,” Forbes, February 2017. http://bit.ly/2mUQ62c
(0:42) “Whether LeBron Has A $1B Deal Or Not, Michael Jordan Is Still The King Of Nike,” Forbes, May 2016. http://bit.ly/2nrWEJm
(0:50) “Ronaldo Beats Messi By 800% When It Comes To Return On Social Media For Their Brands,” Forbes, February 2017. http://bit.ly/2mUT8nb
(1:07) TRACKALYTICS, March 2017. http://bit.ly/2nbC9yA
(1:22) “This Company Makes Influencers Out of Everyday People,” Mashable, February 2017. http://on.mash.to/2nrNZqA
(1:27) crunchbase, March 2017. http://bit.ly/2nVJLoJ
(1:39) “This Company Makes Influencers Out of Everyday People,” Mashable, February 2017. http://on.mash.to/2nrNZqA
(1:56) “Do You Hear That? It Might Be the Growing Sounds of Pocketbooks Snapping Shut and the Chickens Coming Home,” AEIdeas, August 2016. http://bit.ly/2nHvdfr
(2:01) Irrational Exuberance, Robert Shiller. http://amzn.to/2o98DZE
(2:04) “GoFundMe for College,” Brittany Gofundme, February 2017. http://bit.ly/2o9bfXmYouTube.com auto-generated transcript:
0:02 Loser: ESPN.
0:03 The triple whammy of the loss of 12 million subscribers in the past six years,
0:07 escalating costs for the rights to broadcast live sporting events,
0:10 and declining ad revenue
0:13 led ESPN to announce layoffs last week.
0:16 Consumers are not consuming less content.
0:18 They're consuming it in a different way.
0:20 ESPN made early forays into digital
0:22 but never figured out how to move away from expensive on-air talent contracts
0:27 or its dependency on the outdated business model of squeezing premiums from cable providers.
0:32 Winner or loser? Nike,
0:34 who signed a billion-dollar lifetime endorsement deal
0:36 with the Real Madrid soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo in December.
0:40 Ronaldo joins LeBron James and Michael Jordan as the only athletes to reach this milestone.
0:46 This might actually be a bargain for Nike.
0:50 Ronaldo generated half that fee, or $500 million, in value for the brand
0:54 from his social media channels in 2016.
0:57 Ronaldo published 347 posts that mentioned Nike,
1:01 garnering almost half a billion interactions.
1:04 His 120 million fans on Facebook make him the most popular person on the platform.
1:11 A winner: salespeople.
1:12 With social media influencers facing declining trust,
1:15 companies are investing in the credibility garnered from retail salespeople.
1:18 Experticity - what a stupid name - which operates an exclusive social network of more than a million retail experts
1:26 has raised $30 million in venture capital.
1:28 Buy some common sense with that money. Experticity?
1:32 In exchange for listening to brand pitches, salespeople get discounts and exclusive access to products.
1:37 750 brands have signed on,
1:39 including The North Face, Adidas, Nickelodeon, and most recently Reebok
1:44 which is using Experticity to promote a new shoe to serious runners.
1:48 A winner: students.
1:50 Yeah, beer, unprotected sex and football games.
1:52 Tell me something I don't know.
1:54 With tuition rising faster than inflation
1:56 and the average college student facing $37,000 in debt,
2:00 students are turning to online fundraising site GoFundMe to help cover the cost.
2:05 Over the past three years,
2:06 more than 130,000 GoFundMe campaigns for college tuition expenses
2:12 have raised $60 million from 850,000 donations.
2:16 Some notable campaigns: E-Jayy's Compton to Harvard campaign raised $21,000
2:21 and Baltimore native Khalil Bridges' campaign to attend community college

Excerpt: As of the end of January 2017, ICANN org has 367 people, which is 19 people less than the FY17 year end budget projection of 386. Over the last three months, 13 joined and another 8 left. ICANN Organization by Locations: As of January 31 2016 [sic], North America Offices & Remote consists of 218 people (79%) in Los Angeles office, 29 in Washington DC office, 28 work remotely in US, 1 works remotely in Canada, totaling 275 (75% of the total organization).

“Is a “Googlee” a “wrong one”? A cricket enthusiast will say, “Yes of course.” In the virtual world too, the answer is well, yes, as the Petitioner, Mr. Gulshan Khatri found to his consternation, when he used it as a domain name: ‘googlee.in’.”--Delhi High Court’s Justice S Muralidhar in his domain name infringement decision in favor of Google.

“She needs that [trademark] registration for enhanced policing,” explained Schwimmer. “And there’s another thing, which is: you need registrations to get intermediaries to pay attention to you. So if you go to Amazon and want to take down stuff; you go to a domain name company or eBay, and you want them to take down the infringing stuff, [the companies] don't want to have to evaluate whether you are the real whatever. The easiest thing is to say, ‘Here is my trademark registration.’ ”" (emphasis added)

5) ICANN's Remit & Human Rights:

"... ICANN’s remit is limited to coordinating the allocation and assignment of
Domain names, Internet Protocol(IP) addresses, Autonomous System (AS) numbers, and
protocol port and parameter numbers. [See ICANN Bylaws] The SSAC believes that assessments based on content accessed through these unique identifiers should not be in scope for discussions regarding Human Rights for the ICANN organization. This may be different from the interests or remits of some stakeholder groups and their members. The SSAC believes strongly that any binding language that holds ICANN accountable to Human Rights values should fall within the scope of ICANN’s limited remit, and implemented via a Human Rights Impact Assessment followed by the development of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy for ICANN. This CSR policy should cover the processes governing ICANN community participation, as well as the ICANN corporation itself ..."--ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committtee--SAC092: SSAC Input to the Cross Community Working Group onAccountability Work Stream 2, Human Rights (pdf) (emphasis added)

8) Neustar $NSR merger: Stockholders of Neustar, a domain registry and technology services company, voted to approve the previously announced definitive merger agreement, dated as of December 14, 2016, by the terms of which a private investment group led by Golden Gate Capital will acquire Neustar. At the special meeting held on March 14, 2017, approximately 82% of Neustar shares outstanding and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of the adoption of the merger agreement. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Neustar’s stockholders will be entitled to receive $33.50 per share upon the closing of the proposed merger. The merger is expected to close no later than the end of the third quarter of 2017, subject to the receipt of required regulatory approvals and the satisfaction or waiver of other customary closing conditions.--Neustar.biz

• Encryption & Spies: "As far as is publicly known, the encryption is strong. Even if it is somewhat weak, modern cryptosystems don't fall in an instant; it takes a fair amount of computation to crack each instance. The CIA is hacking [the endpoints] because that's what's left ... .to get around encryption ..."--Steven Bellovin, Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University.

• Digital Divide: Could New York State’s Plan to Erase Its Digital Divide Work for America? | TechnologyReview.com: New York’s initiative requires a 100-megabit-per-second connection be made available for $60 a month--New York has huge rural areas, but aims to bring broadband Internet to all its residents by next year.
• Apple's iPad Non-Event | SeekingAlpha.com: "Google's Android doesn't shrink from convergence; it assumes it. In my view, Android is well on its way to becoming the universal personal computing operating system that Windows aspires to be and that iOS declines to be. Android is by far the most forward looking and innovative personal computing OS available today, even if not always the most stable and reliable."

2017-03-24

Keep Us Online! | keepusonline.in: "India had more Internet shutdowns in 2016 than any other country. State governments love to shut off the Internet, supposedly to thwart a range of evil-doers — from protesters to exam cheats. Millions of people are routinely cut off on some official's whim, with zero rules or oversight. This is unacceptable. Even for stopping riots — the official justification for most shutdowns — there is evidence that blackouts do more harm than good. Cutting off Internet access prevents innocent people from using the Internet to learn about trouble spots to stay away from, from reaching out for help and from making sure that loved ones are safe ..."

YouTube.com auto-generated transcript:
0:02 Winners: Nike and Adidas, which have mastered the art of manufacturing scarcity in a digital age.
0:07 Both brands use their apps to release sneakers in limited batches, generating hype
0:12 as sneaker fans compete to press the Buy button.
0:15 Scarcity is key to irrational decisions and inflated prices.
0:19 There's a reason that Hermès limits the production of Birkin bags
0:23 and does not distribute them through Walmart.
0:26 When Nike released a new model of Air Jordans last month,
0:28 the SNKRS app jumped to the tenth most popular shopping app in the App Store.
0:33 Adidas sold out of the original black Yeezy Boost in just 22 minutes.
0:38 The results of these scarcity tactics:
0:40 search returns include hack, jig and bot
0:44 and YouTube videos on how to game the apps.
0:47 What category is at the forefront of digital innovation?
0:50 Pizza.
0:51 Pizza Hut just launched smart sneakers that sync with your phone via Bluetooth
0:55 and automatically order a large two-topping pizza
0:58 every time you press a button on the tongue of the shoe.
1:02 And Domino's now offers a wedding registry.
1:04 My guess is the same couple has ammo on the registry.
1:08 We previously discussed pizza brands
1:09 being the agents of digital disruption
1:11 and that continues to hold true.
1:13 Domino's stock is outperforming Google's.
1:16 A loser: Featured Snippets.
1:18 The answers Google returns at the top of the search results page
1:21 account for 15% of queries on Google.
1:25 The snippet algorithm uses third-party sources to generate its answers
1:29 and in recent weeks those sources have been off-color,
1:32 and more importantly, total bullshit.
1:35 We stated in a previous Winners and Losers that every time someone typed a query into Google,
1:39 it got three-billionths of a percentage better.
1:42 What is Google?
1:44 Google is not a search engine. Google is an atheist's god.
1:47 By the way, I'm an atheist, which means
1:48 I believe in one less god than most of you.
1:51 Where do we pray? Where do we send information,
1:54 hope that there's divine intervention
1:55 and get a better answer back?
1:57 Our new god, Google.
1:59 Voice-based technologies are taking over the world.
2:03 Alexa, who is Scott Galloway?
2:09 Scott Robert Galloway is an Australian professional football player
2:12 who plays as a fullback for Central Coast Mariners
2:15 in the A-league.
2:17 Really? I hope he blows a knee.
2:21 We'll see you next week.

2017-03-20

Video above published on Mar 8, 2017: Sebastian Thrun, Udacity co-founder and the first head of the Google car project, discusses Udacity's new hiring partners and President Trump's policies with Bloomberg's Caroline Hyde on "Bloomberg Technology."
Domains:

One thing is now clear, all of the problems related to, or caused by new gTLDs, are increasingly consuming ICANN's time and resources--from policy-making and reviews, to disputes, IRPs, and litigation, to a myriad of other issues that ICANN failed to "think through" before rolling out its ill-conceived and misbegotten new gTLDs program--and most stakeholders who had objections or serious reservations about the new gTLDs program all along, have since left ICANN, including its "ICANN community," leaving mostly just a gaggle of special interest lawyers and lobbyists, domain name industry "professionals" and a cadre of professional "volunteers"--ICANN pays airfare, hotel, and per diem expenses for an unbelievable number of people to show up at ICANN junkets a/k/a "meetings" (example: ICANN57 (pdf) "travel support"=$918,292.60) to fill seats, and make it look like ICANN multistakeholderism "works." From appearances at any ICANN gathering, one might think the domain name industry supports new gTLDs unreservedly, the reality is very, very different: There’s no way to sugar-coat it, today we are an industry divided | MorganLinton.com. It's just that ICANN has muffled and driven away the dissenting voices. That's the way "ICANN consensus" in reality works. For those of us "observing" ICANN, it's like watching a slow-motion train wreck. Tip to the wise: watch China's moves between now and the 2018 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.

ICANN58 highlights:a. The failing new gTLD Registry Operators are now seeking financial support from ICANN in the form of reduced fees, and a marketing "awareness" program (which would likely violate ICANN's 501(c)(3) status and other legal prohibitions)--"only 63 new gTLDs have registered in excess of 50,000 names ... literally many hundreds with fewer than 10,000 registrations" (highlighting added):

The ICANNGovernmental Advisory Committee (GAC) has 171 members, and 35 observers but only 59 GAC members (35% participation rate with half or more of those receiving ICANN "travel support" (airfare, hotel, per diem stipend) based on ICANN57 data) and only 9 observers (26% participation rate) attended ICANN58--source: GAC Communique (pdf). Accordingly, it appears most governments are not actively participating in the GAC, and, not surprisingly, the GAC secretariat lacks sufficient financial funding. Wither ICANN?e. Best Quote of ICANN58: ICANN is a prison--

#ICANN58 Glen de Saint Géry: People say that #ICANN is like a life sentence. But I've never felt imprisoned at all.

3. Important Skills for ICANN Board Members--guidance from the ICANN Board to the Nominating Committee(highlighting added)--apparently past and present ICANN Board members lack some or all of these skills. Surprised?

Defining and refining the sales channel and reversing the trend of falling numbers of ICANN accredited registrars since 2013;

Building user awareness of domain names;

Making registration policies open and simple;

Providing online payment facilities;

Ensuring fast activation of new registrations;

Reasonable and competitive fees; and

Promotions, marketing, and campaigns.

Unfortunately, this "hit and miss" list just skims the surface, and is misleading because it fails to address some core problems in the region.8. Amazon.com adding Spanish--the first new language on Amazon.com since the website's creation over 20 years ago--"Customers will be able to shop, browse and search for millions of products, view their shopping cart, and place orders in Spanish on Amazon.com and through the Amazon Mobile Shopping app," an Amazon.com Inc. spokeswoman told CNET.com. The U.S. now has more than 40 million native Spanish speakers and over 10 million bilingual Spanish speakers, making it the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico. Amazon, the world's largest e-retailer, is seeking to not only attract the growing Spanish-speaking population in the U.S., but also Mexico, where Amazon recently launched its Prime subscription service for about $46 a year.

Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows, Santa Monica, offers “Escape to La La Land” package thru March 31, which includes accommodations in a bungalow, a picnic lunch and a dinner for two, a map of Los Angeles marked with locations where the movie is set and two tickets to a show at the popular jazz club Herb Alpert’s Vibrato Grill & Jazz. From $1,900 a night.--NYTimes.com

Trump's proposed budget (pdf) re: NTIA of the Commerce Dept: "Continues to support the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in representing the United States interest at multi-stakeholder forums on internet governance and digital commerce. The Budget supports the commercial sector’s development of next generation wireless services by funding NTIA’s mission of evaluating and ensuring the efficient use of spectrum by Government users." (p.14)

FCC battle over online privacy: Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona has introduced a resolution that would kill rules the FCC passed in October to regulate consumer privacy for internet service providers.--CNET.com

"The changing face of the Internet is no longer a matter of public communications, but a matter of public services. And with this observation, we are back to a more basic theme. The essential topic of the conversation is how to strike a sustainable balance between a rapacious private sector that has amassed overarching control of the digital service and content space, and the needs of the larger society in which we all would like some equity of opportunity to thrive and benefit from the outcomes of this new digital age."--Geoff Huston, Chief Scientist at APNIC (emphasis added)